The Last Blog of the Year

What I learned when reading my blog is that until I came to the University of Richmond, I had no outlet for my ideas and or knowledge of literature, or life in general. Over the year, the blog became a mechanism which would be used to hash out new ideas which could be used later in class or as a reference on a paper. Beyond acting as a personal tool, the blog could be utilized as a source of knowledge for many of your peers. The blog presented itself as a place of untapped potential for knowledge, and as people became more comfortable using the blog, they would release more important and insightful knowledge concerning a topic that all students are involved in.
What seemed to surprise me most in retrospective is the amount of writing we have done in the past year. Although it may amount to a lot of information, it was never at any point unbearable. The blog features the writing of individuals using a conversational tone which makes for a less stressful writing experience and also lends a more insightful look for the reader into the topic at hand.

Images

I'e started to think that the comic book or graphic novel (what ever Persepolis is considered), is the best way to see history. I listened to Marjane Satrapi in an interview and she happened to discuss some of the very issues that we discussed in class concerning art in her literature. Satrapi talked about how drawings are able to communicate so much more than words when it comes to the more distant reaches of life. There are some things you have to see to fully know. Art, no matter the form it comes in, bridges that existential, gap between what we know about something and what that something really is.
In Persepolis, the reader watchs, quite literally, as young Marjane begins to grow up. She learns about the injustices performed against her family by the Western-supported governments of Iran. Furthermore, we see that freedoms are curtailed, purges are carried out, and dreams are crushed.

Marjane Satrapi introduces us to the effects of cultural change through the eyes of a child, and what period in one's life is filled with more wonder than that of childhood? She depicts herself in the book as an extremely precocious child of Marxist parents, who educate her on the evils of the regime and stage their own rebellion at home by drinking wine and supplying their daughter with posters of Iron Maiden. It is this Western culture at home that brings the character Marji to question what happenings around her, and why she is demanded to do such menial things as wear a veil. She asks questions like Why are our neighbours missing? Why is it wrong to wear a tie?
All of the questions have solutions rooted in the cultural standards of the Middle East. Marji and her childish curiosity allow us to ask questions and find answers of the reasoning behind such deeply rooted cultural dilemmas.

David as the Christ figure

While reading this novel, I found that David was often viewed by Giovanni's as his "savior" or the person who would be there to transform his life. David recognizes why Giovanni brought him to his room, it was to "give Giovanni a new and better life", however "the burden of his salvation seemed to be on me and I could not endure it" (88, 114). This image of David as the savior seemed to recurrent through much of the novel, as in the scene following Giovanni losing his job. David was there to help pickup and rebuild many of the pieces of his shattered existence. None-the-less this viewpoint of David as the savior figure seems to shift characters after the return of Hella. After this point, the role is reversed and Giovanni, who meets his death at the blade of the guillotine, frees David's tormented soul. Giovanni's death acted as the catalyst for his sexual acceptance. Therefore, one could compare the death of Giovanni and subsequent salvation of David with the Jesus dying for the sins of men.

The metaphor for Giovanni's room

Giovanni's room serves as a metaphor for both the safe space where David and Giovanni can share their natural love for each other, as well as the severe claustrophobia that such a relationship represented at the time. The sever claustrophobia that David feels is conveyed every time that he references how the walls seem to be closing in on him. David saw the source of this claustrophobia from the lack of support concerning his sexual preference, much of which stems form the views of his father. Giovanni's Room critiques David's father and moreover, "traditional" American expectations of masculinity and femininity. Nonetheless, you can not overlook the fact that David, and if so facto, Baldwin himself have a sense of love and hatred for it. It seems much like DuBois's theory of the double consciousness. David states that he "resented being called an American (and resented resenting it) because it seemed to make nothing more than that, whatever that was; and i resented being called not an American because it seemed to make me nothing. When i read this, i couldn't help but think of double consciousness and the comparison with this. (on a side note: I'm surprised this hasn't been made a movie yet with the recent success of Brokeback Mountain (can't say I'd see it) but none-the-less, much of the story line is similar).

Caretaker: Analogy of Society and Religion

A symbol that I have noticed lies in the character of the Caretaker. This old, meticulous woman systematically studies not only the rooms in which David lives, but also the inner sanctities of his soul. In my opinion, Baldwin utilized this character to be a representation of both the societal and religion expectations that David was to meet. She initially makes it know that entire town (legitimizing David's personal paranoia) has been watching him, stating that "in a small village almost every move is made under the village's collective eye and ear" (67). The next move that this outwardly sweet and secretly torturous symbol makes is to speak of the subject that David quarrels with most, his sexuality. She does not speak of his secretive sexual tendencies with men, rather she instructs David to "go and find yourself another woman, a good woman, and get married, and have babies" (68). Following her patronizing advice concerning women, she speaks of how he should pray and make religious observances.

What appealed to me about this encounter was that although she spoke in a motherly and caring fashion, it did not have this response in David. This tirade was directed at issues that were dearest to David, and that Baldwin intended to reveal how society is imposing generic regulations on people. And if these regulations were disrupted, it became an issue of religion. It appears that if the societal pressures to conform were not powerful enough to regulate actions, religion would act as a backing, ensuring total compliance.

Confession and Shame

I believe that in order understand "Giovanni's Room", you must first comprehend the complex emotions of David. He is wrought with a sense of confusion, which as Jacques states, "is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford", and now that this sense of confusion has followed him towards adulthood, he is left to wrestle with these feelings, resulting in utter disillusionment and denial. Therefore, because he denies his innermost urges to divulge the secrets of his sexuality, he is left to convince himself that his emotions are shameful and dirty. However, these emotions are as Jaqcues puts it, his actions "will be dirty because you will be giving nothing... but you can make your time together (with Giovanni) anything but dirty... if you will not be ashamed" (57). What Jaqcues is trying to explain is that these emotions and actions are dirty only because David believes they are. He stresses the importance that David is the one who must determine whether these actions are shameful, and in turn they will not reflect shamefully if he acts with feeling, emotion, and acceptance. By ignoring and repressing such feelings, David believes that he will be free of shame, however the shame comes from denying his inner desires and not accepting the truth of his character and love.

Freud, Atheism and Religion

It is important when examining the viewpoint from Civilization and Its Discontents to keep in mind that Freud was an atheist, believing that the fantastic stories and theories of religion should be replaced by the provable facts put forth by science and art. He considered his beliefs to be more realistic than antagonistic, examining religion by viewing it as an offshoot of psychoanalysis. Freud was however, open to all religious philosophies, and interestingly enough, made note that religion, although false, is necassary in society. For example, his theory that “God is a projection of the human need for a father” is based on the idea that God is nothing more than a projection of the human mind. Freud describes that religion was created by the human mind as a form of comfort and that this need for comfort was comparable to the needs of an infant child. He claimed that people looked to God as a higher power much as a child looks to his parents for strength and guidance.

Aggression

To continue on a note that we spoke of in class, I agree that Freud makes a distinct note of the animosity between the demands of instinct and the restrictions of civilization. This makes Freud's views on man’s aggressive or destructive instincts particularly complex. In part this is because impulses of hatred, anger and aggression are, from Freud’s perspective, rooted in self-preservation. In Freud’s vision of man and society, violence is deemed as the basis of our existence on two levels; the violence in the uninhibited instinct and the violence which our culture practices against one another. What makes this esspecially interesting is how this concept plays into the possibility of achieving harmony, which as Freud states must come from an equal amount of impulsive actions of agression and restraint as seen in his analogy of fire.